It's all about the dash

We went to Larry Norman's memorial service yesterday; this is the line of people waiting to get into the church just before it began.  Larry impacted so many peoples' lives.  As we arrived into the sanctuary, a simple pine box lay at the front of the church.  Each attendee received a ticket that said "admit one", and a program that said, "You're invited to a going away party!".  So quintessentially Larry.  It consisted of a fast moving 3 hours of his music, and myriad testimonies of the impact he had on peoples' lives - hundreds of thousands of peoples' lives. One gentleman got up to speak and said, "you know, most of the time we see that someone lived from 1947 - 2008, and we concentrate on those numbers; but really, what counts is what's in between - the dash."   Then he and others proceeded to talk about Larry's "dash" - the way he loved others to Jesus, never missed an opportunity to share his faith, fed so many starving children, helped the homeless; loved, ministered to, and shared Christ to so many "least of these".  At that point, I could not laugh or tap my feet to the funky music anymore, but only cry. I want my dash to look like that - fat, and full of purpose; pleasing to the Lord, selfless, an outpouring of servant hood and love toward others.   I want it to reflect not only the fact that I loved the Lord, but that I loved His people, and that my heart beat for the fulfillment of the great commission. 

What will your dash look like?  Just a space between the numbers?  Or will the numbers themselves seem insignificant compared to what you did for him with that dash in between?Lord help us all to run the race set before us in obedience, with hope, and enduring strength.